“I’m telling you, friends, your life would be quite different if you praised God before you met a challenge. Just try it. Have a private worship service in your home before you go to work. Put on some music that draws you into praise and worship, then spend some time with God before you walk out the door. Don’t listen to the news before you go to work. Listen to God. Then “He will fill your day with Himself because you started your day with Him.

vision, purpose, destiny,

“Some of us wait until church on Sunday before we praise God, and even then we don’t come with praise and thanksgiving in our heart. Instead we come with our bad feelings and wait for someone to make us feel better.
Maybe you were up all night with the baby, you had a spat with your husband over breakfast, or your kids acted up in the car on the way to church. Whatever the reason, you come to church in a bad mood.
The apostle Paul instructs us to have a quite different attitude and disposition:
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:19-20).

vision, purpose, destiny,

Praise is always turning our attention from ourselves to God. It’s remembering and recounting who He is and what He has done, instead of wallowing in the mire of self-absorption. Truly, we are incredibly self-centered people. Our first thought is always how something or someone is affecting us.
Praise turns our eyes from ourselves to God. It focuses our thoughts on His majesty and power and invites others to do the same. Instead of gazing at our own navel, we raise our eyes and our heart to see His face and to affirm again our awe of Him, our gratitude for His love and mercy, and our absolute dependence on Him.

vision, purpose, destiny,

Many of us don’t appreciate how faith works. We are so used to living from what we can see, hear, and touch that we have “great difficulty moving into the realm of faith. If, for example, someone asks us how we are doing, we usually respond based on the condition of our bodies or our souls. We focus on our illnesses or the depressed thoughts that are weighing us down and neglect to mention the many blessings God has promised us. These promises have a much greater impact on our lives than our physical diseases and our emotional struggles. “If someone asks you how you are doing, tell them that you’re blessed. You might not look like it, but God’s blessings are in you somewhere. And each time that you say you are blessed, the blessings within you grow. Eventually what you say and what you see will match.
Faith sees what hasn’t been manifested. It deals with what exists but is invisible. The minute you manifest something, it no longer requires faith, because faith is believing, conceiving, and releasing (speaking) until you receive what you desire. “Faith is being sure of what [you] hope for and certain of what [you] do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

vision, purpose, destiny,

Everything in life has a purpose. Everyone on this planet was born with and for a purpose. It is this purpose that is the only source of meaning. Without purpose, life is an experiment or a haphazard journey that results in frustration, disappointment, and failure. Without purpose, life is subjective, or it is a trial and error game that is ruled by environmental influences and the circumstances of the moment. Likewise, in the absence “of purpose, time has no meaning, energy has no reason, and life has no precision. Therefore, it is essential that we understand and discover our purpose in life so that we can experience an effective, full, and rewarding life.
Purpose is the original intent and cause for the creation or existence of a thing, the end for which the means exist, the desired result that initiates production, the need that makes a manufacturer produce a specific product, the destination that prompts the journey, the expectation of the source, the objective for the subject, the aspiration for the inspiration, and the object one wills or resolves to have. “Purpose, therefore, is the original intent in the mind of the Creator that motivated Him to create a particular item. It is the why that explains the reason for existence. Every product is a child of purpose. In other words, before any product is made, there is a purpose established in the mind of the manufacturer that gives conception to the idea that becomes the substance for the design and production “of the product. Thus, purpose precedes production.
Every product is produced by purpose for a purpose. It exists for its original purpose and thus can find its true fulfillment only in performing the purpose for which it was created. Until purpose is discovered, existence has no meaning.

vision, purpose, destiny,

The Scriptures are filled with injunctions to praise the Lord:
Then David said to the whole assembly, “Praise the Lord your God.” So they all praised the Lord, the God of their fathers; they bowed low and fell prostrate before the Lord and the king (1 Chronicles 29:20).
Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever (Psalm 106:1). “Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord (Psalm 113:1). Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples (Psalm 117:1). Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6).
If we are to obey these commands from God, we must first learn what praise is. Praise includes commending; expressing approval or a favorable judgment of; and glorifying, especially by crediting with perfections (see Webster’s, “praise”). “Praise is always turning our attention from ourselves to God. It’s remembering and recounting who He is and what He has done, instead of wallowing in the mire of self-absorption. Truly, we are incredibly self-centered people. Our first thought is always how something or someone is affecting us.
Praise turns our eyes from ourselves to God. It focuses our thoughts on His majesty and power and invites others to do the same. Instead of gazing at our own navel, we raise our eyes and our heart to see His face and to affirm again our awe of Him, our gratitude for His love and mercy, and our absolute dependence on Him.

vision, purpose, destiny,

This way provided by God is the same today as it was two thousand years ago. There is no improved savior and no improved blood. The Savior has been, is, and always will be Jesus Christ, and His blood is the only sacrifice sufficient and acceptable to atone for our sins.
We human beings may be looking for new and improved ways to worship, but God is not. He does not want experts in “worship. What God wants is people who will follow His instructions every time they approach Him.
This is just the way God is. He isn’t looking for change, since He doesn’t change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Heb. 13:8). His bottom line continues to be His passion for getting His presence back into man’s experience. This is His plan for the entire human race because Adam carried in him all the nations of the world. Therefore, when God removed Adam from His presence, He removed all the nations as well. Likewise, when Jesus came to earth, He came to restore the Holy Spirit to all mankind. Before He could do this, however, He had to clean us up so that we could receive God’s Spirit. He had to cleanse our impurity. “To say that we are impure does not mean that we are dirty, as in the filth of dirt. What it does mean is that we are impure in God’s sight. What we believe, what we say, and what we do don’t match. This “is what impurity is to God. Therefore, God sent Christ to restore a pure heart to us so that we can be integrated in thought, word, and action. Only when our heart is once more pure can we become the temple in which the Holy Spirit lives (see 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19).

vision, purpose, destiny,

“No one can climb beyond the limitations he has placed on himself. Success is never final—failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts—courage and the willingness to move on. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to the grave, obscure men, whom fear and timidity have prevented from making their first attempt to do something. Never tell a person that something can’t be done, because God may have been waiting for centuries for someone ignorant enough to believe that the impossible could be possible.
The poorest of men are men without a dream. Don’t be so afraid of failure that you refuse to try. Demand something of yourself. Failure is only an incident. There’s more than the failure—there’s success deep behind that failure. Failure is the opportunity “to more intelligently begin again. When you fail, that is a great chance to start again. Learn from it and move on. Don’t be paralyzed by the failure.
One good thing about failure is that it is proof that you tried. The greatest mistake you can make is to be afraid of making one. People who do nothing in life are usually people who do nothing. People who don’t make mistakes in life are usually people who didn’t have a chance to make any because they never tried. Challenge your potential. Demand things of yourself that are beyond what you have already done. Expect more from yourself than the accomplishments that are easily within your reach. What you have is not all you are. The limit of your potential is God. It is better to attempt a thing and fail, than to never try and not know you could succeed.

vision, purpose, destiny,

“Romans 8:31 gives me great encouragement: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Now the word for is really the Greek word with. So let’s put it this way: “If God is with me, who can be against me?” The implication is that if God has given you something to do and He is with you, nothing or no one is going to stop you from accomplishing what God wants you to do. I don’t care who the person is or how much influence he has, if God is with you, it’s not important who is coming against you.
If you are going to release your potential, you must live each day checking out who’s with you instead of who’s against you. You may be experiencing political victimization, pressure from your boss or your spouse or your parents, or unfair treatment from your family or your employer, but these influences are not the most important factors in your life. You can spend the rest of your “life fighting the many people and circumstances that come against you, or you can focus on God’s presence and treat them as a temporary inconvenience. If God is with you, those who accuse or harass you have no power over you.
This week can be a good one because your protection relies not on how much power your accusers have but on how much power Christ has. Jesus promises you peace and victory if you rely on His strength:
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
God is your Source. Without a relationship with God through His Son Jesus, you will forfeit your potential. If you haven’t received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

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Reblogged from Jon Lilley:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. – 2 Timothy 3:16

The Bible is the bestselling book of all time and continues to sell millions of copies each year. People read the Bible for many different reasons, but the primary purpose for reading the Bible is to learn about God and His plan for everything.

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